Miles V. Lynk
*Miles V. Lynk was born on this date in 1871. He was a Black physician, author, and activist for science, specifically for medical doctors.
Miles Vandahurst Lynk was born near Brownsville, Tennessee. He was named after two bishops, William Henry Miles and Richard H. Vandahurst, of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in Jackson, Tennessee. Lynk attended Meharry Medical College for two years and graduated in 1891. Later that year, at the age of 19, he opened his practice, becoming Jackson's first Black doctor.
On April 12, 1893, Lynk married Beebe Steven, an early Black chemist and chemistry teacher. Lynk developed educational and professional opportunities for Black physicians. In 1890, he and his wife established the University of West Tennessee, from which they graduated at least 155 physicians, as well as several pharmacists, nurses, dentists, and, through its law school, attorneys during its twenty-three-year existence. They took out a loan using their own home as collateral, allowing them to purchase land for the college. Lynk was able to provide for Blacks to attend school and highlight the preparation that went into attending medical school.
As president of the medical department of the University of West Tennessee, he contributed to the founding of the National Negro Medical Association. Lynk received the Distinguished Service Medal of the National Medical Association at their 57th annual convention. In 1892, Lynk published the first national medical journal for African American practitioners. The Medical and Surgical Observer was stamped and labeled by the Library of the Surgeon General's Office in Washington, D.C., as the "Only Negro M.J. in America." The journal connected isolated African American medical practitioners across the United States.
Although the MSO was published for only about a year, it served as a forum for black medical professionals, who were typically not welcomed in white society and medical conversations at the time. Its content informed African-American physicians of news and practical ideas from the global world of medicine that they had not previously been aware of. Since the journal existed during a time of racial segregation, its readers found it to be another means of accessing information to compete with white medical practitioners.
Lynk also published several books on African American history, including "The Black Troopers: The Daring Heroism of the Negro Soldiers in the Spanish–American War." It discusses the lives of African-American soldiers during the war. The first half of the book strictly explored the lives of black soldiers. Lynk delved into the wealth of inequality they experienced, the impact of being drafted, what that had on the soldier's family, and the tribulations of being a soldier. The second half of the book examines the soldiers who volunteered for the Army to serve their country despite the racial tension and inequality. Miles Vandahurst Lynk died on December 29, 1956.
